1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing and communications systems and, more particularly, to network control stations and systems in which traffic data analysis is utilized to identify maintenance problems affecting the level of service provided to subscribers and to prioritize maintenance activities so as to optimize the level of service.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a voice and/or data communication system, a failure to establish calls upon request from subscribers results in significant loss of revenue to the respective communications carrier. Such failures may, for example, result from errors in databases, or in network elements themselves such as switches, network control points, signal transfer points, and the like. Clearly, downtime and associated deterioration in customer service quality and lost revenues could be minimized by surveillance techniques that detect at the earliest opportunity the onset and cause of failure.
Current surveillance techniques, effected by maintenance operation systems, detect and segment faults by noting the occurrence of a fault and identifying the suspected faulting network element. For this purpose, a network element may report data on equipment failures. The reported data, commonly referred to as surveillance data, thus relates only to failures associated with that network element.
Although the need to identify and correct maintenance problems is certainly vital if a consistently high level of service is to be provided to network customers, it is also necessary to continually upgrade equipment and expand capacity to keep up with rapid increases in network usage. For this reason, data concerning the traffic carried by the network (e.g., call attempts, usage, calls successfully placed in a trunk group) is typically gathered and reported for subsequent analysis. Such "traffic" data is generally collected by computer from the network at pre-determined intervals, and from various types of network elements such as voice switches, packet switches, and STPs, and may be used by network planners, for example, to determine the appropriate link sizes so that the network may achieve a predetermined grade of service and the optimum route selection sequences for use at different time periods for the forecasted traffic load (which is based on projection factors and statistics derived from previous gathering intervals). The traffic information supplied to the network designer is thus currently used to efficiently allocate the physical resources that are already in the field, as well as those contemplated in planned construction. Moreover, analysis of the collected data also permits network personnel to verify whether customers are receiving an appropriate level of service from the network. Also, the traffic data enables the appropriate personnel to view and report on customer usage of particular services, switch modules, or trunks.
Heretofore, network support systems such as those described above for collecting the information required for network surveillance and network element planning have been configured to operate independently of one another. That is, the data collected for the purpose of system planning has not been made available for use by the network management system, even where such information would be useful in the analysis of service-affecting maintenance problems. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide an integrated system in which measurements of abnormal component usage are utilized to analyze and prioritize component maintenance problems. Specifically, by providing traffic data to network surveillance personnel in accordance with the present invention, it may be possible to detect component malfunctions earlier than would otherwise be possible through the use of component surveillance data alone. Moreover, by allowing surveillance personnel to identify those malfunctions having the most significant impact upon the level of service to customers, the present invention makes it possible to prioritize repair operations to the network in a manner which maintains the level of service demanded by its customers.